Creating a Recommend-It Site

"Because nothing speaks louder than word of mouth." So say the folks at Recommend-It.com, who are probably the best-known solution for getting your existing clients, visitors and subscribers to pass the word about your site.

This IS the best form of Viral Marketing going for my money, so you need to work hard on earning it. That part really goes beyond the scope of this column, so let's look at the resources.

At TuCats-Design.com you'll find "Recommend Us" links using the Recommend-It.com service. http://www.recommend-it.com/p.e?667130 I like this because you not only have the chance to use it on your site, but also in email messages. Plus, there is the "carrot" of their current $10,000 and DVD player prize offering. That certainly goes beyond the means of those of us who are Financially Challenged. :-)

I have also implemented forms at the foot of each page (there's really only one, included via SSI), which allow visitors to recommend any page they found useful. This will send the URL of the specific page, not just a generic site one. Go ahead and try it out! http://www.tucats-design.com

I have actually set this up to operate via my form script, which is great when you know how, I suppose. I use Alien Form from Jon's CGI-Scape http://www.cgi.tj which is template-based. A little concentration and you'll soon work out how you can apply this most versatile of scripts to 1001 different functions.

For those of you who prefer something "off the peg", but still in CGI flavour, the CGI Resource Index came up trumps again with a whole section here (You'll need to mend the link): http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/

The two top favourites are both FREE ...

Master Recommend is an easy to install, easy to maintain CGI program written with Perl 5 for your visitors to recommend your website to their friends or associates. It is coded to minimize intentional and unintentional misuse, including spamming/blasting. The outgoing emails are formatted via simple templates kept in a separate file for quick and easy changes. http://willmaster.com/master/recommend/index.shtml

BIRDCAST.CGI: The Easy Way to Let Others Promote Your Site! If you have ever wanted one of those recommend my site buttons on your site, but were concerned about who was getting the information - now you can do it yourself! http://bignosebird.com/carchive/birdcast.shtml

OK, so you don't want to mess with all that technical mumbo-jumbo stuff and you just want to get a form you can copy and paste into your pages and the job's done ...

Again, there are quite a few to choose from in the Remotely Hosted selections, also at the CGI Resource Index http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Remotely_Hosted/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/

One, that I certainly recommend is part of the suite of fun and useful tools from Bravenet http://www.bravenet.com/ look for their Tell A Friend service.

The Let 'Em Know service is sponsored by the Internet Marketing Challenge. http://letemknow.com/ and similarly gives you an easy copy and paste form for your visitors to use.

If you know your way around the technical stuff, here's where it REALLY gets Viral. You don't just put this on your pages for your visitors. You provide the service to other webmasters as Chris Kilian has done here: Suggestion Service for FREE on YOUR WEB PAGE http://www.stealthpromotions.com/suggest.htm

About the Author

Pamela Heywood is webmistress of tucats-design.com tucats-design.com/- Building Your Online Business Instinctively. Subscribe to the weekly TuCats Mewsletter (subscribe@tucats-design.com) and get regular FREE hints, tips, articles and resources.

To contact see details below.


admin@tucats-design.com
http://www.tucats-design.com/